United States Ninth Circuit

In a class action suit alleging plaintiffs suffered injuries as a result of the 2004 merger between Cingular Wireless and AT&T, an order compelling arbitration of the action is reversed where: 1) a class arbitration waiver in New Cingular Wireless Service's standard contract for cellular phone services is unconscionable under California law, and thus, unenforceable; and 2) the Federal Arbitration Act does not preempt a holding that the waiver is unenforceable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/17/2007
• Published 08/17/2007

Judges

• REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:, Before:  D.W. NELSON, STEPHEN REINHARDT, and PAMELA ANN RYMER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William Weinstein, Wechsler Harwood LLP, New York, NY, for plaintiff-appellant., Robert K. Friedl, Kirtland & Packard LLP, El Segundo, CA, for plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Donald M. Falk, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for defendants-appellees., Evan Tager and Timothy C. Lambert, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, Washington, DC, for defendants-appellees., Michael J. Stortz, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, San Francisco, CA, for defendants-appellees.